New Delhi, April 17 -- The radical funding cuts unleashed by the US administration nearly jeopardised a critical global database of computer code bugs on Wednesday, before a last-minute reprieve that experts say averted what would have been a major blow to global cybersecurity efforts.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database, the digital equivalent of an international disease registry but for computer software vulnerabilities. On Tuesday, a leaked internal letter to the board of MITRE Corporation, which manages the database, warned it was at risk of halting operations as the administration had not renewed the annual contract. Over the next 24 hours, the cybersecurity community and tech industry braced for a worst-case sce...